Morse and the Mystery of the Drunken Driver is a short story about Morse published in three parts in the Daily Mail in December 2008. It is, I believe, the last Morse work that has been written. The story is told from the point of view of Philip Day, who once roomed in the same house as Morse their first year at Oxford. The house is owned by Helen and Jeff Lloyd. One evening, while Helen is home alone, she hears a disturbance outside her house and when she later investigates, finds that someone has knocked down the front fence and left tire mark indentations on the front lawn. The police are called the next morning, but after the sergeant says that there is a great likelihood that the perpetrator will ever be found, Helen proceeds to show him the front license plate that Jeff found in the bushes that morning. At this point, during Morse and Philip's second year at Oxford, Morse has moved to college rooms, but Philip is still staying with the Lloyds. Philip is not convinced that Helen's story about the accident makes sense and wonders about Morse's involvement. He starts to play detective but finds that Morse has gotten to the answer first.

I haven't read all of the Morse short stories that Dexter has written, but it is my guess that this is one of the earliest in the Morse timeline as it takes place while Morse is still at Oxford. It does fill in a little of the backstory as to why Morse did drop out of Oxford before he started with the Thames Valley Police, so from that standpoint alone, it is interesting. However, I didn't find the mystery much of a mystery. Not that I figured out who the drunken driver was, I guess it just didn't interest me enough. ( )